The present disclosure generally relates to refrigerators, and more particularly relates to a dual evaporator refrigerator having a select temperature pan or compartment.
Evaporator-type refrigerators often include a fresh food compartment and a freezer compartment. These refrigerators usually employ a closed-loop cooling circuit for cooling the fresh food and freezer compartments. More particularly, the closed-loop cooling circuit can include a compressor, one or more evaporators for exchanging heat with the fresh food and freezer compartments, and a condenser. A fan can be provide in association with each evaporator used in the closed-loop circuit for blowing exchange air over the evaporator to more effectively cool the compartments.
In one configuration, a single evaporator is used to cool both the fresh food and freezer compartments. In this type of configuration, the single evaporator is typically disposed within the freezer compartment and airflow communication is needed between the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment. Drawbacks associated with this arrangement include undesirably low humidity in the fresh food compartment due to moisture moving to the evaporator disposed within the freezer compartment (i.e., the coldest surface) and condensing thereon, and odors from the fresh food compartment passing into the freezer compartment. Such odors can become entrapped in the ice cubes made in the freezer compartment.
In another configuration, a pair of evaporators is used to cool the fresh food and freezer compartments. More particularly, a fresh food evaporator can be disposed within the fresh food compartment for cooling thereof and a freezer evaporator can be disposed within the freezer compartment for cooling thereof. When two evaporators are employed in a cooling circuit, a multi-way valve can be used to selectively direct the refrigerant between the evaporators. For example, depending on a position of the valve and refrigerator compartment conditions, part of the refrigerant may flood in one evaporator and be unavailable for use in another. This alternate configuration eliminates the humidity and odor problems, but is still somewhat limited.
For example, the fresh food compartment evaporator is typically limited to a temperature between about 34° F. to about 45° F. (about 1.1° C. to about 7.2° C.). The fresh food evaporator can thus be set to cool the entire fresh food cooling compartment to a temperature within this range (e.g., 37° F. or 2.8° C.). In some cases, however, it may be desirable to store an item (or a few items) at a cooled temperature other than that of the fresh food compartment. This other temperature may be a temperature within the fresh food evaporator range, but different than the temperature preferred for other items in the fresh food compartment (e.g., the fresh food compartment may be set at a preferred temperature of 37° F. or 2.8° C., but some item are preferably defrosted at a temperature of 40° F. or 4.4° C.). Alternatively, this other temperature may be outside the fresh food evaporator range, but not at room temperature or the temperature of the freezer compartment (e.g., an item, such as fresh fish, is preferably stored at a temperature of 30° F. or −1.1° C.).